Saints go marchin' in 40- day 'Billava Jodo Yatra'

Mangaluru: Karnataka has given birth to one of the largest OBC movements in south India witnessed so far. Three major variants of the Billava community, 29 sub-castes and 20 religious leaders will do a 658-kilometre 40-day Padayatra from Mangalore on the West Coast to Bangalore starting on 6 January (Friday). The Padayatra is a show of strengths of sorts in the run-up to the elections to the state assembly which is just around the corner.

It will be led by Swami Pranavananda an emerging religious leader of Billavas of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Kerala. They are called Eedigas in central Karnataka and Namdharis in Uttara Kannada district. They worship the 19-20th century reformer and philosopher Narayanaguru Swamiji of Kerala. The Swamiji is known to have consecrated the Gokarnanatheshwarashiva lingam and carted it from Kerala to Mangalore under the stewardship of SahukarKoragappa in early in 1912.

Since then the Gokarnatheshwara temple had been developed into the apex faith centre of the Billavas. The credit of engineering this movement goes to the tall leader of the Billavas and a staunch Congress leader B Janardhana Poojary who was a former union minister and a close confidante of the Nehru Gandhi family.

The Padayatra has ten demands says Pranavananda Swamiji. Speaking to The Hans India a day prior to this momentous padayatra the Swamiji said " our people are thickly populated in 31 districts in Karnataka. The population is estimated to be 70 lakh in the state and a quarter of that in Maharashtra, Gujarat and West Asian countries. One of the major demands that our community wants to be met by the government is the shift from the 2A reservation category to Scheduled Tribe (ST), after the Lingayats have sought to be included into the 2A category we are afraid that the reservation under 2A for Billavas will reduce the relevance of us being in that category our children will not get the required volumes in higher education and public sector jobs".

Other demands include the Formation of BrahmashreeNarayanaguru Backward community development corporation with a funding of Rs. 500 crore to begin with and a recurring budgetary allocation. Billavas, Eedigas and Namdharis and 29 other subcastes are carrying out toddy tapping as a principal avocation, but they have no representation in the Karnataka Beverages Corporation. They want the chairmanship of the corporation given to a community leader. The SingaduruChowdeshwari temple which is an Eediga community temple is now being handed over to Brahmins for supervision and functional administration. The temple management rights to be handed over to the Eedigas and Brahmins should not be given any positions there. Dakshina Kannada, Udupi Shivamogga, and Uttara Kannada parliamentary constituencies are thickly populated by Eedigas, Billavas and Namdharis. They are demanding four assembly tickets to be given to the community aspirants in each parliamentary constituency" the Swamiji told The Hans India.

The padayatra is though between Mangalore and Bangalore about 350 kilometres through the popular route via ShiradyGhat. The padayatra will take a circuitous route via Udupi, Kundapur, Thirtahalli, Siddapura, Shivamogga, Davangere, Harihar, Bengaluru. -a total of 658 kilometres. "Our people are there in these districts and we definitely want their participation and involvement in this significant event," Pranavananda told.

It will be flagged off by the tall leader of the Billava community B. Janardhana Poojary. Srinivas Goud who is an Eediga community leader in Telangana and the Telangana minister for Excise and tourism will inaugurate the padayatra.

It is estimated that over 7000 people will participate in the march. It will be led by Pranavananda Swamiji.

Is this about politics? When asked the swamiji said "No it is about the second wave of social reforms for the community through the power of the constitution. I have asked all Billava leaders irrespective of their political affiliations to participate in the padayatra which is stated to be the mother of all struggles for the unification of the Billava community on an apolitical platform I have even asked two ministers from our community -Sunil Kumar and Kota Srinivas Poojary from Karnataka government to resign and participate in the padayatra" Swamiji said sternly.